Sibuyan Island Part 1

November of last year, we found ourselves heading for Sibuyan, Romblon for the 90th birthday of Lola Titing.  My father-in-law's mom (Hi Dad Nolan!).  He traveled back from the US to celebrate the momentous occasion.  The jump-off point of our journey is the port of Batangas, 2 hours drive from Manila.  From here, we will be taking a RoRo bound for Romblon 12 hours more or less by sea.

If you don't get sea sick, it's not much of a problem.  The ferry leaves at around 5PM.  In a few hours you'll be having dinner and be ready for bed.  There's not much to see anyways.  Only the darkness of the night in the middle of the sea.  There will be a brief stop at Tablas Island port of Odiongan, Romblon for unloading and loading vehicles and passengers.  By daybreak, we were approaching the island of Romblon, Romblon.  The Capital.

From here, we would then transfer to another ferry bound for Sibuyan Island.  Here's where it got tricky.  The ferry bound for Sibuyan was already docked before we arrived.  The only holdup was a truck conked out while disembarking.  I thought to myself, good!  I have time to drive our car out the ferry since we brought one wait for the truck to get fixed and load our vehicle to the Sibuyan-bound ferry.  The problem, it was low tide and the ramp was too steep for our vehicle to exit.  To make it short, we got left by the ferry and there's only one trip per day.

Snap from inside the car waiting to disembark.

The ferry in the middle left us.  Montenegro shipping lines sucks!

But hey! At least we get to spend a day in Romblon.  It was about 7 in the morning and no amount of complaining from the port authorities will bring the ferry back.  Tita Inday's vegetables are rotting away in one of the trucking services that got left also.  So we picked up our bags and went straight to Uncle Popoy's house to have breakfast.

Yes, that's breakfast. A gallon of water....Just kidding!

It was a blessing being left by the ferry.  We received message that it was raining quite heavy in Sibuyan and there's no electricity.  They get to visit relatives otherwise skipped and I get to meet them.  The town center is not that big so we got around just by walking.  And if you don't feel like it, there's always somebody willing to offer a ride specially for a visiting relative.  It's a motorcycle country so be prepared to back ride.

Cathedral of St. Joseph

After a brisk walk and some chit-chat, we prepped our gears and headed for the beach house a few minutes drive from town.  It will be our pit stop for the day before ferrying out to Sibuyan the next morning.

Recovering from sea legs

Away from the city lights

Refuel!

Woke up early the next morning and wait straight to the pier.  A backlog of vehicles created by the previous day hiatus might leave us again stranded.  So we muscled our way in to be first on board the vessel.  It's another two-hour trip before reaching the port of Ambulong Magdiwang, Sibuyan, Romblon.

We arrived late in the morning and Tito Boying is already waiting for us.  He guided us toward the place where we will be staying.  A rented beach house, nice!

The main house

Weather here can be quite fickle.  It can be sunny and then suddenly rain in a span of few hours sometimes minutes.  I guess that's the effect of having a majestic mountain nearby named Mount Guiting-Guiting (loosely translated I think is "saw tooth like") commonly known to local mountaineers as G2 and is rated 9/9 in climbing difficulty.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing, enjoying the view and unpacking a lot of stuff.  Uneventful to say the least.

That uneventful!

Relatives started trickling in the following day and the preparation is gathering steam for the big day.  Half the guest is coming in from out of town/country.

11.11 is Lola's actual birthday but the big gathering is still two days away.  That evening, they cooked a few "handa" and have a simple quiet celebration for Lola.  Prepared the cake brought in from Manila, lit a few candles and started singing.  She was quite happy seeing her sons and daughters celebrate with her and the impending family reunion.

See her distance from the cake?  Still has steam in her!

They lounged around the balcony after dinner, stories of old told over and over again yet never tiring to hear for people separated by distance that don't see each other as often as they wanted to.  I decided to head for the beach with tripod and camera on tow and took this shots.

Bright lights from the fishing vessels.

Starry starry night!

More relatives came the following morning a day ahead for the celebration.  We already have an itinerary and they will be joining us.  The more the merrier!  A short trip will take us to a small dam where we will be having our lunch and splash into the refreshing water.  It's my first time here and I'm taking it all in, the beauty of nature.  From where we sit overlooking the gentle flowing river is the evergreen G2.  Locals say that the mountain is enchanted and inhabited by creatures from the netherworld.

Who needs a swimming pool if you have this?  No chlorine!

There is now a resort nearby that offers food and accommodation.  Should you decide to come here, it's a place to consider staying.  Several areas around the dam is flat enough to setup tables and chairs.  The prime spot is just about where I took the photo above.

The resort I was talking about. Forgot the name though.  Will get back on that.

Our picnic area.

We stayed until around mid afternoon spending our time swimming, drinking and mostly eating!  At least I got some tan from this one.  Too bad I don't have a picture of me.  One of the drawbacks of having a camera and appoint oneself as the designated photographer for the trip.  I think there are some in the other cam but the images are on Dad's PC now back in the US.  Dang!  Word of warning though,  there are no restrooms here unless you ask permission from the resort if you can use theirs.  We changed to our dry clothes from behind the bushes.  Find a good spot, ants might have a field day.

Peaks of G2 at 300mm

Then went back to the beach house to help the new arrivals get settled in.  The place is getting a bit crowded and we had to do some rearrangements and relocation to be able to accommodate us all comfortably.

Didn't think much about dinner.  I was still full from the picnic and having few bites every now and then.  We were thinking about doing something else.  Bonfire!  We got ourselves a cooler filled with ice and beer, a few chairs and started gathering wood.  Then, there was fire....

As we were about to settle in comfortably on our chairs...RAIN!  Talk about party pooper, boohoo!  We scampered back into the house carrying the chairs and the cooler.  Lost my interest on those ice cold beer and just played cards.  Good thing I won me some money :)).

Big day came and everybody was at their Sunday best.  Preparation started a day before and they slaughtered several pigs for the occasion, five in all I think.  Talk about pork overdose!

Lola is dressed up like a Binibining Pilipinas candidate all smiles seeing all the visitors as they come.  Tables were already setup by the caterer crossing our fingers that no rain would come.

Mama's Boys

All in all, it was a great day.  Enjoying home cooked style food with great company.  Birthday party and reunion rolled into one.  It lasted until early evening as visitors keep on arriving.

As for me, I got tired running around taking photos lugging around my neck a couple pounds of camera.  Since I don't have a picture of myself, went to the beach and took one!

Wish you were here.....

Dramatic oh! :)